Stock prices almost rose on Wednesday, enough to push the Nasdaq Composite to a record high. The market remains quiet ahead of Friday’s employment report and Monday’s US Workers’ Day holiday.
The S & P 500 Index closed at 4,524.09, up 1.41 points by less than 0.1%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 48.20 points (0.1%) to 35,312.53, and the Nasdaq rose 50.15 points (0.3%) to 15,309.38.
SME stocks performed better than other markets. The Russell 2000 Index rose 0.6%.
Technology and telecommunications stocks showed a solid rise, which helped lift volatile markets without it. Consumer staple foods have also risen above other sectors.
Investors have shown that a weak survey from payroll firm ADP has shown that US companies added jobs in August at a much slower pace than economists expected. The weak report follows Tuesday’s disappointing consumer confidence survey and precedes Friday’s release of the Labor Department’s August Employment Report.
Tom Martin, Senior Portfolio Manager at Globalt Investments, said:
According to FactSet, economists expect US employers to create 750,000 jobs in August, pushing the unemployment rate down to 5.2%.
Whether the report will provide more clues about the strength of the job market and will be decided at the upcoming September meeting on the Federal Reserve Board’s timeline to cut $ 120 billion in monthly bond purchases. May give investors a clearer sense of. Federal Reserve Board Chair Jerome Powell suggests that interest rates will remain low for the foreseeable future, even if the central bank curtails bond purchases.
Transactions could recover next week after Wall Street ends the Workers’ Day holiday. September has historically been a more volatile month for the stock market.
Meanwhile, the Institute for Supply Management, an industry group of purchasing managers, reported in August that US manufacturing growth accelerated, despite companies still suffering from supply chain problems. According to Martin, supply chain issues are a key factor in how investors measure inflation direction and potential impact, as well as improving employment.
The S & P 500 closed August with the longest winning streak since early 2018, and the broader market continues to rise all year round. Much of the momentum is low interest rates and a steady economic recovery in favor of equity investment, but investors are becoming more cautious.
The more contagious Delta variant of COVID-19 has raised concerns that consumers could regain spending and the recovery that was highly needed in the job market could be stalled.
As the market subsides following a strong corporate earnings season, the focus will be on broader economic data.
Copper prices fell 2.2%, pushing down some major copper mining companies.
PVH, which owns the Calvin Klein and Tommy Hilfiger brands, surged 15.1% after raising its earnings forecast this year. Other highly profitable stocks include video compression chip maker Ambarella. This increased by 27.4% after reporting strong performance in the second quarter.
Bond yields were stable. The Treasury yield for 10 years remained at 1.30 percent since the end of Tuesday.
Most European and Asian markets closed at high prices.
Damian J. Troises
